MAYWOOD | Less than a month after 1-year-old Bryeon Hunter was allegedly murdered by his mother and boyfriend, another young life was taken from the Maywood community.

Dashamone McCarty, 19, a Proviso East graduate and three-sport athlete for the Pirates, died after being shot in the head while in the back seat of a moving car with three other people at around 10:55 p.m. May 15. The incident occurred just a week after McCarty had returned home on summer break following his first year of college, according to various news reports.

Police told Sun-Times Media the incident happened around Fourth Avenue and Fillmore. In the Sun-Times report, friends said McCarty was going to get something to eat when the shooting occurred. McCarty was taken to the Loyola University Medical Center, where he was later pronounced later the next morning by the Cook County medical examiner’s office. A CBS-TV Channel 2 news report said McCarthy was taken off life support after doctors attempted to save his life.

Ryan Jones, a friend of McCarty’s from childhood—McCarty lived with the Jones family for seven years, according to the Chicago Tribune—told the Tribune believed that the shooting “must have been random because nobody would target him.”

“He (McCarty) and our group of friends chose to be different,” he said in the Tribune. “We were never involved in selling drugs, and we stayed away from gangs.” Police told NBCChicago.com (Channel 5) they also didn’t believe McCarty was the intended target.

McCarty participated in track, football and basketball at Proviso East. He was a member of coach Donnie Boyce’s 2012 Class 4A state runner-up Pirates’ squad and played three minutes in the state championship game. As a football player, he holds the Pirates’ all-time record for most interceptions in a single game (four).

Jones told Sun-Times Media that McCarty ended up living with Jones’ family to give McCarty a better chance at life. “I've got both parents,” Jones said. “I wanted him to stay with us so that he could live the way I live so he didn't have to struggle.”

McCarty ended up going to Dakota College in Bottineau, N.D. He was a defensive back on the Dakota College football team and a guard on the basketball team. McCarty played in 27 basketball games, starting 17, and averaged 5.5 points per game for coach Cory Fehringer’s team. Fehringer told Sun-Times Media he planned to send one of McCarty’s jerseys to his family and that no other player would wear his number, 24, as long as he was the team’s head coach. “In my four years of coaching and my five years of playing, I’ve never met a tougher competitor,” Fehringer told Sun-Times Media.

Ken Grotz, the campus dean at Dakota College, released a written statement that was posted on the CBSlocal.com (Channel 2) website: “We enjoyed having him in the classroom, we enjoyed coaching him in basketball and football, and folks enjoyed watching him as well. He was full of life, full of spirit, and a very popular young man. The campus and the community express their thoughts to his family and friends. Our condolences and sympathy are with them at this time.”

Jones told CBS Channel 2 news that McCarty “was a great person.” “If he had a dollar, he would split it with you. He was a caring person. It’s about sports and being successful. And that’s what he was doing. It was just (the) wrong place (at the) wrong time.”